Lil Wayne has revealed that he was disheartened to read André 3000‘s recent comments on not having anything to rap about in his 40s.
Tunechi brought the topic up on the most recent episode of his Young Money Radio show on Apple Music. Talking to his guest Tyga, Wayne didn’t name names but made it quite clear who he was referring to.
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“I read a depressing quote or two from someone I respect a lot in music – in Hip Hop period, in music period,” he began. “And they were asked, ‘Why you ain’t been doing music’ or whatever? And they was like, ‘Man, what I’ma talk about? I’m in my 40s. Like what am I supposed to talk about?’ I was like wow, that was so depressing. I’m like, I have everything to talk about!”
Tyga replied: “But I feel like that’s why you gotta stay in it, though. I feel like you can’t be too far removed.”
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Wayne disagreed, however, saying that, at his age, there’s a risk that keeping up with current music might be even more creatively discouraging.
“So that’s why I say I don’t listen,” he concluded. “I just go in my little hole. I love what I do. I just put it out and swing for the fences man.”
The comments Lil Wayne were referring to appeared in André 3000’s interview with GQ last month. While discussing why his new album, New Blue Sun, doesn’t include any raps (or lyrics at all, for that matter), Dre said he simply has nothing to discuss at his age.
“I’ve worked with some of the newest, freshest, youngest, and old-school producers. I get beats all the time. I try to write all the time,” he began. “Even now people think, ‘Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps,’ or, ‘He’s just holding these raps hostage.’ I ain’t got no raps like that. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.”
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He continued: “I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.'”
In a separate interview with NPR, 3 Stacks elaborated on the reason rap isn’t happening for him right now.
“I would love to be out here playing with everybody, but it’s just not happening for me. This is the realest thing that’s coming right now. Not to say that I would never do it again, but those are not the things that are coming right now. And I have to present what’s given to me at the time.
“So the title, ‘I Really Wanted To Make A Rap Album, But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time’ [is] because this album is about wind and breathing. In that way, it is true. It is literally blowing me this way and I’m blowing flutes and I’m blowing digital instruments.”
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New Blue Sun serves as André 3000’s first official solo album, although he did release a disc of solo material on OutKast’s Grammy-winning 2003 double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
